שׁמעshm` "hear,
listen or obey". The qal
imperative is used in a "call to listen" at the start of some prophetic
speeches (Am at 3:1; 4:1;
5:1; 8:4), a single oracle (Am 7:16) and within a speech to mark out a call upon witnesses
3:13. Religious noise in the
absence of "listening" leads to God's refusal to listen 5:23.
Persistent failure to listen will bring a "famine" for "hearing"
8:11.

The hiphil means "proclaim
or announce". In 4:5 we hear how the Israelites love to proclaim their offerings,
but in 3:9 the proclamation
is to call on foreign witnesses to her sin.